THERE is no doubt that Jamie Carragher bitterly regrets launching a coin back into the crowd after being pelted from the sidelines at Arsenal.

He can now begin to put the affair behind him with the news that he will receive no more than a police caution after the controversial events at Highbury.

But this does not mean that the football authorities will not have to to take a wider look at the increasing number of similar incidents at stadia up and down the country and act before someone is seriously injured.

Echo Chief Photographer Stephen Shakeshaft has a total grasp of the pain Carragher must have felt when the coins rained down. But he has more reason than most to understand why the player should not have reacted the way he did.

Steve points out that photographers can often be the filling in the sandwich between the crowd and the pitch. He used to dread a decision against the home team.

The consequence was often a shower of coins. Steve says that he would often have enough money to buy a round of drinks. But that's where the amusement ended.

When the coins come, you realise you have to keep your head down. You dare not look at the crowd for obvious reasons. Steve recalls seeing a coin embedded in the soft tissue under the eye of an unfortunate St John's Ambulance man many years ago. Ironically, it came from the Anfield Kop and so we should not get all high and mighty about the Arsenal crowd. It's a national problem.

Steve said that he could live with the meat pies and cigarette ends thrown, but coins were something else. He admits to being hit on many occasions and is aware of the consequences.

He also pointed out that fans don't throw light coins like pennies. They will throw a pound coin, not because they want to be generous, but because they are heavy.

Our Chief Photographer has also been hit by air gun pellets fired from within a crowd. He doesn't differentiate between this despicable act and the throwing of a coin.

My own view is simple. We don 't want fences back (particularly in this city). We don't want moats as a barrier. We don't want to lose the first eight rows of seats around every leading ground to create a no-man's land. Therefore we must point the finger at anyone seen launching a coin.

Carragher had no place to hide, captured by the TV cameras. But it's difficult to pinpoint those who are guilty in the crowd. Firstly, the stewards must keep their eyes on the fans and not the pitch. The images from Highbury showed a key steward looking the wrong way.

But the fans are the best people to highlight the guilty individuals. If we are not prepared to finger the coin throwers, we will all have to shoulder the blame and the shame if someone loses an eye or is badly hurt in a future incident.

Equally, we will be to blame if our stadia become fortresses again, blighted by the fences that contributed to 96 deaths at Hillsborough.